Three years after his record-breaking debut feature You Are the Apple of My Eye, best-selling Taiwan writer and executive producer Jiubadao or "Nine Knives," returns with Cafe Waiting Love, a romantic comedy based on his novel of the same title.
The story starts from a lonely college girl Si-ying who gains a part-time job at "Café Waiting Love" coffee shop, owned by a beautiful mysterious woman. While working, Si-ying also spends her days watching the customers at Café Waiting Love. Unexpectedly, she's harvested her own love there.
The highlight of the film is Hong Kong singer and actress Vivian Chow playing the role of the café owner. Jiubadao explains she is the one whom he has waited for to act in his film.
"According to my design, the café owner should be played by a veteran actress who has long been away from the screen but still much missed by audience members. People around me soon advised Vivian Chow be a good choice."
47-year old Vivian Chow is well known for her ladylike stage image. However in 1997, Vivian Chow left her full-time singing and acting career in Hong Kong. Talking about her return to the big screen, Chow thought she was a bit nervous as she came back to acting in film "Café Waiting Love".
"The café owner I act in the film is a woman who falls deeply in her past love with her boyfriend who passed away and cannot get over it. She appears very indifferent to anything that happened around her. I remember when I began acting, I felt a bit nervous for I have quitted my acting career for quite a long time. So as soon as I arrived for shooting, I felt I was rather a new hand and curious about everything there."
Not only acting in the film, Vivian Chow also sings the theme song, which is widely regarded as another spotlight of the film.
Directed by Jiubadao's working partner Chiang Chin-lin, the movie rounds out nicely with an appealing cast of novices, including Vivian Sung, who has only acted in music videos. The other two main actors Marcus Chang and Bruce Zeng haven't had any acting experiences before.
The film had great opening box office sales in Taiwan in its first week, with ticket sales surpassing 100 million New Taiwan Dollars or some 20 million yuan of RMB.
The film is expected to meet Chinese mainland audiences soon.
For Studio Plus, I'm Xu Fei.